13 replies to this topic

[alchall]

I've been struggling to get the drivers side door to fit well, to the point that I must have rebuilt the door badly and this was the problem, so I made use of the sell off of stock at DSN classics to buy a bunch of stuff I was going to need plus a new door (not cheap), sadly, all this did was confirm that I'd really not done such a bad job of remanufacturing the door after all, it's pretty well close to the same as the new one and the problem is just the same, here you can see what the problem is...

 

 

 

Compared with the other side which fits really nicely....

 

 

 

So while it fits reasonably square inside the frame the top rear pushes too far in by approximately 10mm whilst the main body of the door follows the profile of the rear quarter panel pretty closely.

 

I've spent a lot of time scratching my head on this but I think I know where the route cause lives, and it goes way back to me fitting the new floor, I now recall having to adjust one of the closing plates between rear arch and seat pan which at the time I wasn't sure was the right thing to do to make the whole thing fit properly across the width of the car.

 

I now wonder if what this is doing is causing the car to be misshaped slightly at the B post on the passenger side so I'm going to have to do some major surgery to correct it; off with the rear wings, unpick the welds along the seat pan / heal board, and re-fit with a new closing panel on the side that I adjusted.

 

I posted this on my build thread and have had some suggestions about tweaking the door frame to fit, which may be an easy fix and I could give it a go but I'm worried that I might just create a new issue with the glass not fitting or sliding smoothly in the frame and even causing an additional point of water ingress into the door.

 

Any other advice from the oracles and experts on here would be very much appreciated!

 

[KTS]

..just a thought - if you measure from the centres of the B posts to the opposite lower corners of the front/rear screen lip do you get different readings for each side ?

[alchall]

..just a thought - if you measure from the centres of the B posts to the opposite lower corners of the front/rear screen lip do you get different readings for each side ?

 

Good thought, I'll try that at the weekend, maybe I should also measure between the two B posts at waist rail height to compare with other minis to see if the drivers side is actually in board too far which I suspect to be the problem....

[sonikk4]

So its a replacement door that fits like most other replacement doors and will need some suitable tweaking to make it fit decently.

 

Is the front edge of the door flush with the A panel?? If it is and the back is fairly even with the quarter panel, then its more likely to be the window frame. 

 

I would then be inclined to start getting  bit brutal with the frame and pulling it out, it wont need much and you will surprised how much it will move. 

[absx2]

If you cast your eyes over the the top of the doors window frame and it lines up level with the door frames base and lower window channel the door is correctly aligned as in not twisted.

All is not lost if the doors are ok as you can get quite brutal and twist it into alignment just the same as BMC did with the aid of a piece of 2" x 2" soft wood to space the door off the frame whilst you tweak it into position.  

[steeley]

Abut of 4x2 and a little bit of brute force it will line up nicely

[Cooperman]

I have seen and worked with worse than you have.

The inward set of the top of the frame is easy to bend out until it is correct.

The front edge looks a bit close to the A-post at the level of the base of the screen. This is also not uncommon nd it may be necessary to heat up the A-post with a blow torch and gently re-shape the A-post slightly with a hammer. I know it sounds a bit brutal, but it does work. You may be able to shim the door rearwards about 1.5 mm as well.

I'm afraid Mini door fitting needs a bit of brute force at times.

[alchall]

Thanks for all the advice, looks like brute force may the answer, seems to be the consensus so my concerns about that being the wrong thing to do are clearly unfounded!

 

So its a replacement door that fits like most other replacement doors and will need some suitable tweaking to make it fit decently.

 

Is the front edge of the door flush with the A panel?? If it is and the back is fairly even with the quarter panel, then its more likely to be the window frame. 

 

I would then be inclined to start getting  bit brutal with the frame and pulling it out, it wont need much and you will surprised how much it will move. 

 

The new door is actually slightly worse than the old one, I'll have a crack at adjusting the old one, I should be able to sell on the new one anyway and pretty much get my money back as I got a very good discount from DSN in their clearout!

 

The front does fit flush with the A panel, a little less so with the rear quarter panel but that isn't as dramatic as the top of the frame and actually probably easily correctable if the frame can be adjusted outwards.

 

If you cast your eyes over the the top of the doors window frame and it lines up level with the door frames base and lower window channel the door is correctly aligned as in not twisted.

All is not lost if the doors are ok as you can get quite brutal and twist it into alignment just the same as BMC did with the aid of a piece of 2" x 2" soft wood to space the door off the frame whilst you tweak it into position.  

 Yeah everything does seem to line up, it really is just that top corner of the door that isn't good.

 

Abut of 4x2 and a little bit of brute force it will line up nicely

I've a piece of timber in the garage that will do the job nicely

 

I have seen and worked with worse than you have.

The inward set of the top of the frame is easy to bend out until it is correct.

The front edge looks a bit close to the A-post at the level of the base of the screen. This is also not uncommon nd it may be necessary to heat up the A-post with a blow torch and gently re-shape the A-post slightly with a hammer. I know it sounds a bit brutal, but it does work. You may be able to shim the door rearwards about 1.5 mm as well.

I'm afraid Mini door fitting needs a bit of brute force at times.

 

Yep that front edge is a bit close on the passenger side, it's not so much on the drivers side where I have the problem with the frame, I will shim it out a bit to see how well that works but may also have a go at re-shaping as well as per your advice, so thanks for that!

[Steve220]

Definitely bend it.  I watched Steve @ Sleaford mini centre sort my doors out after **** poor attempt at alignment by the previous bloke who gave it a go.  It involved a plank or wood and using a bit of body weight, they now fit perfectly.

[nick@dunsdale]

Sorry but i think it's going to take more than tweaking the frame, it looks like the door look's far to high

 

As the body line on the door isnt aligning with the top of the A panel and the gap between the the step and the bottom of the door looks to big at front end of the door tapering to touching at the back

 

I think you need to concentrate on getting the main body of the door correct and then see where the frame lie's

Attached Files

•  mini 1.jpg   44.01K   4 downloads
•  mini 2.jpg   34.31K   9 downloads

Edited by nick@dunsdale, 04 April 2019 - 12:25 PM.

[sonikk4]

Sorry but i think it's going to take more than tweaking the frame, it looks like the door look's far to high

 

As the body line on the door isnt aligning with the top of the A panel and the gap between the the step and the bottom of the door looks to big at front end of the door tapering to touching at the back

 

I think you need to concentrate on getting the main body of the door correct and then see where the frame lie's

 

Actually, the door is low at the back as well, so you may have to slot the holes in the A post to realign things first.

[nick@dunsdale]

 

Sorry but i think it's going to take more than tweaking the frame, it looks like the door look's far to high

 

As the body line on the door isnt aligning with the top of the A panel and the gap between the the step and the bottom of the door looks to big at front end of the door tapering to touching at the back

 

I think you need to concentrate on getting the main body of the door correct and then see where the frame lie's

 

Actually, the door is low at the back as well, so you may have to slot the holes in the A post to realign things first.

 

 

I did mention that as well 

 

if the top hinge holes are to far in, or the bottom ones to far outwards that would compound the problem with the door frame as well

[alchall]

 

 

Sorry but i think it's going to take more than tweaking the frame, it looks like the door look's far to high

 

As the body line on the door isnt aligning with the top of the A panel and the gap between the the step and the bottom of the door looks to big at front end of the door tapering to touching at the back

 

I think you need to concentrate on getting the main body of the door correct and then see where the frame lie's

 

Actually, the door is low at the back as well, so you may have to slot the holes in the A post to realign things first.

 

 

I did mention that as well 

 

if the top hinge holes are to far in, or the bottom ones to far outwards that would compound the problem with the door frame as well

 

 

 

 

Sorry but i think it's going to take more than tweaking the frame, it looks like the door look's far to high

 

As the body line on the door isnt aligning with the top of the A panel and the gap between the the step and the bottom of the door looks to big at front end of the door tapering to touching at the back

 

I think you need to concentrate on getting the main body of the door correct and then see where the frame lie's

 

Actually, the door is low at the back as well, so you may have to slot the holes in the A post to realign things first.

 

 

 

Sorry but i think it's going to take more than tweaking the frame, it looks like the door look's far to high

 

As the body line on the door isnt aligning with the top of the A panel and the gap between the the step and the bottom of the door looks to big at front end of the door tapering to touching at the back

 

I think you need to concentrate on getting the main body of the door correct and then see where the frame lie's

 

Thanks again, I'll see if I can do some more tweaking, I think with the original door those problems are less apparent, I'll see where that gets me, I'm back to worrying a bit about the shell being a bit out of alignment now though! 

[alchall]

Thanks everybody for the helpful advice, got the door fitting much better now!

 

I reverted to the old door as I didn't want to start messing too much with the new one as I can sell it on if I don't actually need it.

 

So basically I've done two things....

 

1) Opened the holes in the A post out to 10mm, was going to slot them but decided I needed some front to back as well as up and down movement.

 

2) I drilled out the two welds that fix the bottom of the window frame on the rear of the door, pulled the top rear corner outwards then plug welded back in place.

 

And the result...

 

 

 

I also found my original photo's of the car when I bought it and that drivers door did originally sit inboard at the top so I'd basically put it back as it was, as it stands now it's improved a touch so I'm going to call this solved and move on.